D’Youville Faculty Awarded Incentive Grant to Improve Vaccination Access in Buffalo

Alyssa M. Wozniak, PharmD, BCPS, Assistant Dean for Clinical Affairs, Outreach, & Special Projects in the School of Pharmacy and Residency Program Director at Vital Pharmacy, has been awarded an incentive grant to research and improve vaccination access for patients across Buffalo.

The project will develop and test a rapid vaccine screening tool to help pharmacists identify when adults may be due for important immunizations, many of which are often missed in routine care. By using a short questionnaire that captures health conditions, age-based risks, and other factors not always visible in electronic records, Wozniak and her team aim to close vaccination gaps among underserved community members, homebound patients, and college students. The goal is to make it easier for patients to receive recommended vaccines, reduce preventable illness, and strengthen access to preventive healthcare across Western New York.

The project will also evaluate how social drivers of health such as transportation, cost, and real-world access barriers impact a patient’s ability to complete recommended vaccines. By identifying the most significant obstacles, from insurance gaps to limited mobility or pharmacy access, the team hopes to reduce preventable delays and improve uptake of routine adult vaccines throughout the region. Building on this work, the tool will be piloted in three care settings: Vital Pharmacy’s community site on the West Side, the Pharmacy-at-Home model for homebound patients, and the D’Youville campus population. This will allow the team to evaluate how well the screening process identifies missed vaccine needs in diverse groups, from underserved adults to college-aged young adults.

If successful, the project will move into Phase Two with plans to scale across regional pharmacy networks, positioning D’Youville as a leader in community-pharmacy immunization innovation and strengthening preventive health outcomes across Western New York.

The grant also creates meaningful opportunities for collaborative student, post-graduate, and faculty scholarship, including potential presentations and publications that will contribute to the region’s pharmacy practice knowledge base.

Wozniak will be joined in this work by co-investigators Julia Vicaretti, PharmD, MPH, clinical assistant professor in the School of Pharmacy and a 2024 alumna of D’Youville’s PharmD program, and Manroop Mahal, a pharmacy resident at Vital Pharmacy and a 2025 alumna of D’Youville’s PharmD program. Together, the team brings clinical insight, community perspective, and research-driven focus, a combination well positioned to lead positive change.